4th of July

Just a reminder that the school will be closed next Wednesday, the 4th of July. If you have a regularly scheduled lesson on that day and haven’t done so already, please make sure to reschedule it. Have a safe and happy 4th!

Northwest Tournament Of Champions!

As I am certain you already know, we will be participating in the upcoming Z-Ultimate Northwest Tournament of Champions, scheduled for Saturday, August 18th! I know that not everyone will be able to participate, but I think that you deserve to consider participating for a variety of reasons. As a teacher, I have found over the years that the process of training for an event like this is a great tool for building confidence and self-esteem, as well as a better understanding of martial movement. Of course, not everyone that competes will win first place. Our primary goal is for all participants to be able to experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from knowing that they did their best under pressure. From a self-defense standpoint, this is a critical skill, whether you choose to do this through forms or sparring. Knowing how you perform physically while experiencing a little mental stress is one of the key components for effective self-defense and a vital part of your overall training.

About the Tournament

Congratulations!

Congratulations to those who tested for new belts on Saturday, June 23rd:

• Tannin A: Yellow Belt
• Zach B: Yellow Belt
• Peyton G: Yellow Belt
• Ian M: Yellow Belt
• Vihaan T: Yellow Belt
• Michael B: Orange Belt
• Logan B: Blue Belt
• Sophia D: Blue Belt
• Harman Z: Blue/Stripe Belt
• Rohan S: Green Belt

What a great job all of you did, and we are so proud of you for accomplishing that next step in your journey to Black Belt! Way to go!

Chess4Life Camp

We are really excited about our new partnership with Chess4Life, a Bellevue-based company that seeks to empower people through the study of chess and the life skills it has to offer.  As such, it is a perfect complement to martial arts training, and we’ve teamed up to host a combination chess/martial arts camp at the Mercer Island dojo the week of July 30th – August 3rd.  More details about the camp can be found here.  For those that are interested in participating, please register through the Chess4Life website.

The founder of Chess4Life, National Chess Master Elliot Neff, has a goal “to develop the many skills that chess provides in each of the students that attend Chess4Life programs, whether or not the student moves on to championship level. Seeing children develop into confident, persistent achievers is a wonderful reward for the work put into creating Chess4Life programs!  Chess4Life focuses on positively encouraging students at all levels, developing sportsmanship and ‘team play’, and providing the opportunities that students need in order to achieve.”

We are looking forward to working together and helping more kids grow through the study of both disciplines!

Thank you!

I wanted to thank you for helping to make our raffle successful! Thanks to your efforts, we were able to raise almost $300 and dozens of bags of food for Mercer Island Youth and Family Services.  For those that weren’t able to make it in for the actual raffle drawing, we still have several unclaimed prizes, so check in and see if one of your tickets won!

If you attended one of the events (buddy day, women’s self defense, or the kids party), I’d love some feedback so that we can make improvements for future events.  Thanks again and great job!